Lingua e traduzione per l'impresa internazionale - EN IT LEZIONE 5 DOTT.SSA FEDERICA PIERANTOZZI

Lingua e traduzione
per l’impresa internazionale
EN>IT

LEZIONE 5
DOTT.SSA FEDERICA PIERANTOZZI

Assignment

   Discursively describe the
    advertisement (category,
    sub-genre…) and describe
    the creative use of
    language and visuals
   Keep it short (250 words)
   Translate it!

Description

   Identify category and sub-genre
This advertisement promotes a bottle of Mc Ilhenny
Tabasco Sauce, then it is a product and commercial
advertisement since it aims to sell a food product. It is a
soft-sell advertisement because it does not ask the
reader to take action directly, but it aims to appeal to
those who love spicy food.

Description

   Describe the attention-seeking device(s)
The attention-seeking device is the image of the bottle
standing in the middle of the page on a red
background, whose colour has been taken from the
sauce. It is represented like a fire extinguisher tank
showing the typical handle, lever, and hose. The
combination of the product with a fire-related object
and the background create a metaphor that
represents the comparison between the fire and the
sauce, whose spicy flavour feels like having the mouth
on fire. That is, we need to be careful with it, as we
would do with a fire that has to be extinguished.

Description

   Mention the copy
As far as the text is concerned, the copy is composed
of a headline (“Beware the heat”) and a sub-headline
(“Little bottle. Big flavour”). Besides, by warning the
reader to be careful with the heat, the copy
emphasizes the meaning of the metaphor, and
explains that despite of the small-sized bottle, the
flavour is intense and explosive like a fire.

Description

   Speak of any further information
Finally, we can add something about the creative use
of language. In the sub-headline we find a parallelism
where the adjective-noun structure is reproduced
twice. The wordplay is made stronger by the use of
opposite adjectives in two implicitly coordinated
sentences.

Homework

   Can you spot any
    creative uses of
    language?
   Please, revise your
    translation
    according to what
    we said today.

Homework

   Can you spot any creative
    uses of language?
   Translate it.

Last time, we talked about…

   Motivation
   Julianne House (overt/covert translation and cultural
    filters)
   Creative use of language
   Emotional language

Translation analysis

   Molina, L., Hurtado Albir A., Translation techniques
    revisited: a dynamic and functionalist approach, META,
    47, 4

   The categories used to analyse translations allow us to
    study the way the translation works

Translation techniques and process

      Molina and Albir say:

   Disagreement and confusion in definitions provided by
    scholars. Sometimes different labels are confused and
    overlap

   They offer a review of definitions and their own
    classification of techniques

   Case study: Arabic translation of A Hundred Years of
    solitude by Gabriel Garcìa Marquez

Translation techniques and process

   Translation techniques: how micro-units of the TT function
    in relation to the corresponding unit of the ST

   Translation process: how the translation is approached at
    a macro-level (method and strategies)

Process and result

                    METHOD (interpretative-communicative)
   PROCESS
(decision level)    STRATEGIES (search for information)

    RESULT
                         TECHNIQUES
(practical level)

Validity of translation techniques

    It depends on:
   Text genre (letter, advertisement…)
   Type of translation (technical, literal…)
   Mode of translation (written, sight translation, interpretation…)
   Purpose of translation
   Audience
   Method chosen (interpretative-communicative…)

A focus on techniques

   Translation technique: the result of a conscious or
    unconscious choice made by the translator

   Molina and Albir list 17 techniques

   Focus on 10/17 useful techniques for advertising
    translation

Foreignization vs. domestication

   Foreignization (estraniamento): staying closer to the
    SC, thus “sending the reader abroad” (Venuti, 1999)

   Domestication (addomesticamento): going closer to
    the TC (adapting the text), thus “bringing the author
    back home” (Venuti, 1999)

Classification proposal

1.    Adaptation
2.    Amplification and reduction
3.    Borrowing (pure or naturalised)
4.    Calque
5.    Compensation
6.    Description
7.    Established equivalent
8.    Literal translation
9.    Modulation
10.   Transposition

Adaptation

   Replace a ST cultural element with one from the TC

                                  Domesticating technique

Amplification vs. reduction

       Amplification                        Reduction
   Introduction of details that      Omission of details that are
    are not formulated in ST           considered redundant
  e.g. Ramadan, the Muslim           e.g. Ramadan, the Muslim
month of fasting                   month of fasting

                     Domesticating techniques

Borrowing

             Pure                       Naturalised
   Taking a word or an           Taking a word or an
    expression straight from       expression straight from
    another language               another language but
                                   adapting it to spelling and
                                   grammar of the TC
    e.g. lobby                     e.g. chattare

     Foreignizing technique        Domesticating technique

Calque

   Literal translation of a word or phrase (lexical or
    structural)
    e.g. skyscraper = grattacielo
        basketball = pallacanestro
        railway = ferrovia

    Foreignizing technique

Compensation

   Introduction of information or stylistic effect of the ST in
    another place in the TT because it is not possible to
    reproduce it in the same place as in the original

    e.g. Tangled.
         Rapunzel. L’intreccio della torre.

    Domesticating technique

Description

   Replace of a term or expression with a description of its
    form or function

    e.g. Panettone = traditional Italian Christmas cake

    Domesticating technique

Established equivalent

   Use of an expression recognized by dictionaries or
    language use as equivalent to the ST expression
    e.g. They are as like as two peas.
        Sono come due gocce d’acqua.

        A piece of cake.
        Un gioco da ragazzi.

    Domesticating technique

Literal translation

   Word for word translation of a sentence or clause in which
    the form of ST coincide in function and meaning with TT
    e.g. State cercando un partner?
        Are you looking for a partner?

   Not to be confused with an ESTABLISHED EQUIVALENT

     Foreignizing technique

Modulation

   Change in the point of view, focus or cognitive category
    in relation to the ST.
   It can be lexical, grammatical or structural.
    e.g. You are going to have a child.
        Stai per diventare padre.

        It is not difficult to make a choice.
        Scegliere è facile.

   Tip: useful when the translation does not sound good!

    Domesticating technique

Transposition

   Change in grammatical category of a word
    e.g. He will soon be back.
         Tornerà presto.

    Domesticating technique

5-MINUTE

Figure of speech (FoS)

   https://excellence-in-literature.com/figures-speech-
    schemes-tropes/

   Trope: an artful deviation from the ordinary or principal
    signification of a word. A trope uses a word in an unusual
    or unexpected way.

   Scheme: an artful deviation from the ordinary
    arrangements of words, a creative alteration in the usual
    order of words.

Resemblance or relationship

   https://www.britannica.com/art/figure-of-speech

   Metaphor: the comparison is implicit (e.g. sei una volpe)
    Simile: the comparison is explicit (e.g. sei come una volpe)
    Synecdoche: name a part to refer to the whole
    (e.g. molte bocche da sfamare, le quattro ruote)
   Metonymy: name one thing to refer to another that is closely
    related to the first (e.g il Pentagono, “Ascolto Jovanotti”,
    “Bevi un bicchiere con me?”)
   Personification: reference to abstractions or inanimate
    objects as if they were a person (e.g. la notte porta consiglio)

Emphasis or understatement

   Hyperbole: deliberate exaggeration (e.g. I have a million things to
    do)
   Litotes: adding emphasis by negating the contrary (e.g. I’m not too
    bad)
   Rhetorical questions: questions that do not really need an answer
    (e.g. Are you kidding me?)
   Antithesis: opposite terms or ideas are placed in sharp juxtaposition
    (e.g. little bottle. Big flavour)
   Oxymoron: a self-contradicting word or group of words (e.g
    Bittersweet)
   Irony: the real meaning is concealed or contradicted (e.g. That
    was very smart!)

Figures of sound

   Alliteration: repetition of the same sound or stressed syllables at the
    beginning of the word (e.g. She sells seashells by the seashore)
        Do you remember consonance and assonance?

   Rhyme: repetition at the end of the sentence or word (e.g. Chilling!
    Thrilling! Bracing!)

   Anaphora: repetition of word or phrase at the beginning of several
    clauses or sentences (e.g. For everything there is a season, and a
    time, for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time
    to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up – Ecclesiae, Old
    Testament)

Verbal games

   Paronomasia (pun): a humorous use of a word in such a way
    as to suggest different meanings or applications (e.g. "Thai Me
    Up“ - Thai restaurant in Manhattan)

   Anagram: a word formed with the letters of another word in a
    different order (e.g. neat, a net – Cambridge dictionary)

Repetition

   Pleonasm: use of more words than needed to express a
    meaning (e.g. Kick it with your feet – Cambridge
    dictionary)

   Antimetabole (chiasmus): repetition of a word or
    sentence in a reverse order for emphasis (e.g. Qualità
    senza risparmio o risparmio senza qualità? - Sole)

Homework

   Discursively describe this
    advertisement.
   Translate it.
   Comment on your translation
    choices. Please, refer to the
    translation techniques we
    discussed together.

Today, we talked about…

   Translation analysis
   Molina and Hurtado Albir
   Method, strategies and techniques
   Some useful techniques
   Tropes and schemes